


Game On

by Kalloway



Category: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-20 22:31:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14270928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalloway/pseuds/Kalloway





	Game On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Exile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/gifts).



Fayt flopped forward onto his room's bed and closed his eyes for a quick moment. The last vacation he'd been on had been a, well, 'disaster' would be putting it mildly, but...

The resort's bed wasn't rock hard, at least. That was something. And this was going to be a good vacation, arguably well-earned, if only a few years late. Fayt still hadn't gotten back to school, but he had done a lot of other things that had been worth doing. 

Rolling over, Fayt opened his eyes and grabbed for the remote to turn on the screen in his room and look through available amenities. 

Well, games. Mostly games. He had missed a lot of games. Just reading, en route to the resort, about all the games he'd missed over the last couple years had made him twitchy. 

Fayt scrolled through titles and noted that yes, there were already two games he absolutely would have to try out and then-- 

"They have Resonant Archive: Infinite Sky!" 

There was no time to rest! Not when they had the game Fayt had been utterly captivated by when he'd started checking out new releases. He'd read every spoiler-free review and watched dozens of gameplay videos. He was fairly sure he could sing the opening theme song. It wasn't a simple battle simulator in any way - no, it was a full adventure story for multiple players, though he knew he could rely on the computer for companions if he needed them. 

He made it about three meters toward the door and realized that even if it was vitally important that he go play that game, a shower was even more vitally important if he was going to be anywhere around other people. A quick shower. 

Fayt chucked off his clothing as fast as he could and bounded for the bathroom. 

Fifteen minutes later, Fayt smelled quite a bit better, had dressed himself properly, and was ready to grab the biggest soda he could and spend the rest of the day gaming. 

He nearly crashed into Cliff on his way to the transporter. 

"I thought you were going to grab a nap," Cliff commented. 

"I thought I was, too," Fayt replied with a little shrug. "But they have Resonant Archive: Infinite Sky and I have to go play that. Now. It's the one I was reading about the whole way here..."

Cliff just laughed. "Haven't you had enough of that in real life?"

"I've had more than enough of that in real life. Just when I think I've cleaned all the Proclaimers out from around Peterny..." Fayt shook his head. "Well, anyway... I want to play the fictional version?"

Shaking his head, Cliff took a step as if he was going to go on his way, but then he turned back. "Okay, I'm kind of curious..."

"You want to come?" Fayt couldn't help smiling. Cliff would be a valuable asset in his party if he was any good with the controls. 

"Well..."

"What are you two worms doing, other than blocking the hallway?"

Fayt smiled even wider at Albel. Possibly to a degree that Albel seemed a little confused and possibly concerned. As concerned as Albel could ever get...

"We're going into battle," Fayt said firmly. "Follow me."

He wasn't sure if he should have been surprised or not when Albel followed without too many additional comments. 

The game area was surprisingly empty, but it was a nice day and most of the people visiting that particular resort were probably there for the beaches and warm weather, not for gaming. Fayt did want to visit the beach eventually, but some things had priority. 

And that meant that there was an empty terminal for Resonant Archive: Infinite Sky waiting for them. Fayt had replicated drinks for all of them on the way there, though Albel didn't seem entirely impressed by the neon blue soda he'd been given. Honestly, Fayt knew that Albel liked getting off Elicoor II and doing new things, but he never quite managed to stop acting prickly about it. Maybe someday.

"Okay. We can do most of the set-up from the inside," Fayt explained as he gestured toward the terminal's door. "There are gloves to put on, and a few other accessories so that the computer can track us all accurately. I already know what character class I want to play as, but... you guys can always branch out?"

Fayt entered in some basic information into the screen on the front of the terminal, and then led the way when the door opened. 

"Computer, game start," Fayt said. Instantly, the large, dark chamber started to light up, revealing a rack of gloves and other spangles. 

"Please follow directions for application of tracking and safety devices," the computer announced in an even, pleasant voice. 

For the next few minutes, they were all walked through application of the game's equipment. One set of gloves had extra buttons for in-game commands, others were just for players with more than one set of hands. There were also simple medical trackers, calibrated to species, and a few more sensors for positioning. Fayt knew the game would keep them from running into any of the walls, at least-- 

And finally, goggles. Albel didn't seem inherently keen on them, but he hadn't much liked putting a control glove over his gauntlet, either. But he tried, and deep down, Fayt gave him a lot of credit for that. He knew that Albel understood video games, but this would be his first experience in this kind of simulator... Better not to think too hard about it, really.

"This had better be worth it," Albel muttered as he pulled the goggles into place. "What the--?"

Fayt smiled as he pulled his own goggles into place. Yes, there they were on the main street of the first town of the game. He'd seen enough pictures - he knew. But it was all definitely sort of stylized, too. Fayt was used to it; he'd played enough games. 

And standing in front of him were... well, they certainly weren't really Cliff and Albel anymore. No, they were sort of blocky constructs, waiting for job classes, weapons, and physical appearances to be selected. 

Fayt didn't hesitate to make himself into a swordsman and give himself the same basic appearance that he'd always used in games: not too different than his physical self, aside from deciding to go with cool long hair and a black outfit. 

"Hey, how about this?" Fayt heard Cliff ask from beside him. When he turned, he was looking at an exceptionally busty featherfolk mage in bikini armor. "I think I could make it work."

"At least turn on a voice changer, please," Fayt replied flatly. 

"You're no fun." Cliff did flip back to the blocky construct, though, at least. 

On his other side, Albel just swore. 

"Want me to help with this part?" Fayt questioned. "I know there's a lot of options..."

"I'll figure it out," Albel muttered, though after another minute, during which Cliff settled on playing a dark-skinned axe-wielder with pointy ears, he muttered something that Fayt was somewhat happy to not understand and then thrust his hand over at Fayt. 

Carefully, Fayt took Albel's hand and accepted the controller connection. 

"Not what I was expecting," Fayt managed as he looked at the specs for the character that Albel had chosen. "It's really different for you. But it'll be a good challenge."

"This is really different--" Albel waved his left arm and yes, Fayt understood. Instead of echoing Albel's gauntlet, the game was giving him a normal, whole arm. 

"Do you want me to change it?" Fayt questioned. Quickly, Albel shook his head. 

"No, don't," he said sharply. "Why waste my time with something that won't be a challenge? If I wanted to be continue showing how pitiful you are with a sword, we could have stayed on Elicoor."

Well, at least there was a bit of logic behind Albel's decision, anyway. And it didn't take long to get Albel through the last stages of set-up and have his avatar projected into the game. 

Fayt knew far better than to ever mention that Albel had been stuck at the selections for his new, in-game tail. 

Letting go of Albel, Fayt shifted back into his own controls and nodded to Cliff. 

"I think we're ready," Fayt said. Oh, but Cliff was looking past him and at Albel, who had gone entirely against type and chosen to play as a fellpool-ish magic-user, though his overall coloring and appearance was still very... Albel-y. It would definitely be a challenge, too! For a brief second, Fayt wondered if he needed to change up his usual, though that would make it hard to protect Albel and if Albel was decent with the controls, the game had plenty of magic even beyond real-life symbology. Had Albel actually been paying attention one of the times Fayt had talked about video games? 

"Albel?"

"Do you have a complaint, worm?" Well, Albel's body language translated through just fine, though his ears twitched and yes, so did his tail. Fayt was very careful not to laugh, though he was very, very tempted. Maybe it didn't matter too much why Albel had chosen that class and avatar - Fayt was going to enjoy it no matter what.

"No, not at all," Cliff replied before finally looking back to Fayt. "So... what do we do now?"

"Computer," Fayt called, "Start!"

Around them, everything started to move and, highlighted on a noticeboard was a poster offering a reward.

"We start small." Fayt walked over to pull down the poster and look at it. In big letters, it offered a reward for capturing bandits outside the town, which looked like a mix of Peterney and Airyglyph. 

"Eh, we can do this," Cliff commented as he peered over Fayt's shoulder. "So we just go beat them up?"

Fayt sighed. "We check in with the Guild, request any additional AI party members - we might want to add someone who can heal us - and then go beat them up."

With a little prodding, Fayt managed to get Cliff and Albel through the Guild registration procedure, which was also the game saving their avatars and data, and to request the aid of a computer-generated healer covered in interesting symbological markings. 

"Hello," she said as she stepped into the Guild's hall from what otherwise looked like an unopenable door, "my name is Liah."

Fayt introduced himself first and Cliff quickly reached for her hand as he introduced himself. Albel, however, kept a bit of a distance. It might have been the avatar he was wearing, but he looked almost a bit pricklier than usual. 

"She's just part of the game," Fayt reminded him softly. Oh, so this was going to come up. There was really no way to ignore it, he supposed.

"Are you sure?" Albel hissed back.

Fayt blinked. "Pretty sure, yeah."

Liah was, if nothing else, the perfect in-game dictionary and map. As they headed out towards where they needed to hunt bandits, she gestured at shops and talked more about the town and the world. 

Then... Then it was game on!

By the time the computer stopped the game to tell them to go get food, something to drink, and fresh air, they'd captured the bandits, found a lost monster (which was somebody's pet), and started to crack into the plot of the game. Albel had finally gotten the hang of controller-motion casting and seemed amusingly proud of himself. Cliff had settled into an interesting conversation with Liah, though there were definitely plenty of moments where he'd asked things too complicated for the game's programming to reply to. 

And Fayt... hoped they'd all have a bit of time after dinner to go back and play a few more hours. Maybe. If...

"Well," he said as he requested another round of blue sodas to be replicated for them all, "do you want to play a bit more later, or should I just request new companions?"

"Idiot. As if we're replaceable," Albel said quickly. He seemed more at peace with the soda, too. 

"You're not getting Miss Liah to yourself," Cliff added with a chuckle.

Fayt sighed. Maybe this hadn't been the best idea. But it was certainly going to be fun. And that's all he really wanted from a vacation. Fun, friends, video games...

Though a bit of time on the beach would be nice, too.


End file.
